Priyanka Chopra says she was kicked out of movies after nose surgery

• Priyanka Chopra Jonas said she was dropped from two films after a doctor damaged her nose.
• In her new memoir, the star said she had surgery after a polyp was found in her nasal cavity.
• The doctor “accidentally shaved the bridge of my nose and the bridge collapsed,” said Chopra Jonas.
• Visit the Insider home page for more stories.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas said a botched operation altered her nose and caused her to be dropped from two films early in her acting career.

“I felt devastated and desperate,” Chopra Jonas said of the surgical error in her new memoir titled “Unfinished,” published Tuesday.

In the book, the actress detailed her rise to fame, which began when she was crowned Miss India World in January 2000 at age 17 and won the Miss World title later that year.

Following her success in the competition, Chopra Jonas began her acting career in India with a series of films. Over a decade later, she made a breakthrough in the United States when she landed the lead role in the ABC series “Quantico” – which marked the first time a South Asian actor played the character. principal in an American television show.

ABC

But before her career in the entertainment industry took off, Chopra Jonas learned in the summer of 2001 that there was a polyp (a benign growth) in her nasal cavity that would require surgery to be removed. She first became aware of the problem when she developed a “persistent head cold” followed by breathing problems.

“Fortunately, a polypectomy looked like a pretty routine procedure. Unfortunately, it wasn’t,” the actress wrote in her memoir.

Chopra Jonas said the doctor “accidentally shaved the bridge of my nose and the bridge collapsed”. When the operation ended and she looked at the result, she and her family were “horrified”.

“My original nose was gone,” recalls Chopra Jonas. “My face was completely different. I was not me.

“Every time I looked at myself in the mirror, a stranger would look at me and I didn’t think my sense of myself or my self-esteem would ever recover suddenly,” she added.

Gerry Penny / AFP via Getty Images

The “We Can Be Heroes” star said the situation was made worse by the public scrutiny and the rumors that were spreading.

Around the same time, Chopra Jonas’ potential acting career was put in jeopardy when she was pulled from two out of four films she had signed for, after “producers heard rumors that j looked different after the operation. “

“As if the physical and emotional pain from the original and subsequent corrective surgeries weren’t enough, it was a terrible blow,” wrote Chopra Jonas, explaining that these films were meant to be her first after her victory as Miss World.

“My career, a career so based on appearance, seemed to be over before it even really started,” the actress said.

The role of Chopra in the Hindi film “The Hero: A Spy’s Love Story” has also been reduced to a supporting role. She made her film debut in the fourth project she originally signed for, a Tamil film titled “Thamizhan”.

The actress said the on-set experience was a positive one, in which she regained some of the confidence she had previously lost.

As for his nose, Chopra Jonas said it had normalized over time, after “several corrective surgeries”.

“I got used to that face,” she said. “Now when I look at myself in the mirror, I’m no longer surprised. I made my peace with this slightly different self.